A New Home!

Imagine lots of foliage gone...thanks to my mother!

Kenzie showing off her lion king (she is in love with Lion King right now!)

We have officially bought a house in Michigan! We walked in and Jon and I both knew that it was the right house for us. It has lots of room (compared with what we had in Roanoke), more than enough space for visitors (meaning...come see us!). God worked out the timing perfectly, we signed papers to close in Roanoke on Tuesday and we signed papers to buy in Caledonia on Wednesday! We will be closing around July 17th, so anyone who can come and help paint that week, we need all the help we can get!
Love you guys...thanks for all your prayers!

Uncle Butch...this one's for you!

I never knew Uncle Butch and cousin Laura read my blog until this week at Aunt Carroll's funeral when they said they keep up with me and read all my parental complaining! Cool! So...Uncle Butch, in remembrance of how you teased me and Ali when we were little, here are a couple sayings from you.
"If you eat carrots, they will put hair on your chest."
"Hey, George...your name is George, right?"
Since this one was dedicated to you, Uncle Butch, you are not allowed to be a lurker and not leave a comment. Anyway, it was great to see you this week, and in spite of all the teasing when I was younger, I look forward to seeing you more often!
Your prayers are being answered since we looked at a house today that we are really excited about and are making on offer on it this Monday. Keep up the prayers and pray that they will accept our offer and we can stay on budget.
We got new cell numbers, so if you want it just email me and I will send it to you (don't really want my cell number to be on my blog for the world, or Uncle Butch, to see).

Update

Wow! Two weeks into this move and this is my first chance to update this blog. That's pretty sad! So much I have to tell you all...I will start with the church stuff.
We had our first opportunity to announce our church-plant to the "parent church" and ask for people to show interest and come with us. Luckily, Ben Ward was able to be there too (since he is coming as Associate Pastor for sure now) and people were able to meet us all and know what the leadership of the church would be like. We got about 60 families interested and Jon and Ben have been calling them this week and getting connections started. Jon is starting to have meetings with people who are interested and it looks as though we have some contacts with the High School and may have our services there. Ben will be moving up here next week and our first two informational meetings will be next Wed. and Thurs. We are praying that we will have at least 30 families show up. By the way, we have chosen the name, Journey Church, and we have somewhat of a website if you want to check it out at www.thejchurch.com.
Now for the personal, home-front stuff. We have looked at so many houses, I'm about ready to spit! They say it's a buyer's market up here, so I must be really picky! We think we have found one that may work for us, we are looking at it again this week and may make an offer on it. The girls have been doing fairly well (considering that Jon is gone during the week up in GR and we are 45 minutes away at my parent's house). They have been pushing the limits quite a bit, just trying to make sure mom will still discipline with all these changes going on! We're trying to stick to our guns, but they make it hard some days. Also, I'm trying to keep up with my WeightWatchers meetings and not gain back all the weight that I had lost in Roanoke. That is going okay...except for the week of our move, I gained 3.5 lbs!!! It must have been those ten pieces of pizza I had on move day!
This Wednesday, my sister and I will be making a quick trip to Indiana for a family funeral. My mother's aunt (who was more like a mom to her) passed away yesterday on my father's birthday. Mom is taking it pretty hard even though it was expected. Pray for her family since most of them are not saved.
Thanks for your prayers and love. All of you in Roanoke...you are soooo missed! I think about you all a lot and pray for you too. Keep in touch!